2008 Summer Vacation
This is a quick summary of our summer vacation. We took our
camper and five of us across the country. We have our Dodge
diesel pick-up truck, pulling our 19 foot Salem Bunk House travel trailer,
and carrying Heather's and my Kawasaki motorcycles. Heather is
following in her Jeep Cherokee. This lets us separate the kids on
the long stretches and gives us a smaller vehicle to run around in
without having to unhitch the camper. The links are to some
of our photos or the sites of the locations visited. The
latitude, longitude coordinates are to allow finding some of the
sites on Google Earth. Heather also has her own MySpace page for those who use it.
Also,
I have received some comments about the links. Some people aren't
interested in the links to other sites, only to our photos. So, I
have tried the following convention: Links associated with names,
or in the text, are external sites about the location. Our
pictures are linked from the word (Photos) that have been inserted into
the text. Not all of them have been converted yet, but I am
working on it.
Home to Lyon Ranch, Sonoma, CA
Day 1 - (Sunday, June 8, 2008) Left home late on Sunday evening after dance recital.
Just wanted to get on the road so that the trip is started.
Went up I-75 to the KOA at Lake Park, GA. (N 30.67510, W 083.21987)
Day 2 - (Monday, June 9, 2008) Diagonaled up through Georgia into Alabama. Stopped at a
US Army Corps of Engineers park near Coffeeville, AL. Neat place,
right on the Tombigbee River. Saw one of the famous multi-barges
going up the river. (N 31.75643, W 088.14974) (Photos)
Day 3 - (Tuesday, June 10, 2008) Into Arkansas. Crossed into Texarkana. Driving up
State Line Street through the city puts Arkansas on our right and Texas
on our left. We camped at a KOA on the Texas side of the street, along with the Hormel Spammobile.
( N 33.47139, W 094.04738) (Photos)
Day 4 - (Wednesday, June 11, 2008) Another long day of driving across Texas. Drove through
the town of Paris, Texas, the subject of the movie "The Last Picture Show", (which was actually filmed in Archer, TX).
It is certainly larger and more modern than the town in the
movie. Broke up the day with a stop at a car sculpture which Heather spotted just west of Amarillo, TX. (Photos) We originally thought it might be the famous "Carhinge", but it isn't. It is know at the Cadillac Ranch. Graffitti painting is
encourged on this strange art work in a farmer's field.
(Click here for a 7 minute video interview with the artist/creator Stanley Marsh.) Stayed at
the Ole Towne Cotton Gin RV Park in Goodlett, TX. It is an old
cotten mill that has been converted into a campground. ( N
34.33589, W 099.88197) It has an old warehouse that has sort of a
museum in it. It is also a preferred stop for the traveling
harvesting crews, who were there at the same time. (Photos)
Day 5 - (Thursday, June 12, 2008) Drove to Gallup, NM. (Photos) Stayed at the USA RV Park. ( N 35.50718, W 108.81104)
Day 6 - (Friday, June 13, 2008) Unloaded our motorcycles.
Heather & I rode on Historic Route 66 through Gallup into Arizona.
(Heather crashed, but it was in soft sand, "like a pillow").
(Photos) Sandy took kids to a Zuni Indian village. Loaded up and
headed out to Meteor Crater, AZ. Heather and Koti went ahead to
get to view the crater. Very nice campground. ( N 35.10623,
W 111.03278) (Photos)
Day 7 - (Saturday, June 14, 2008) Visited Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument (Photos) and Wupatki National Monument in Arizona. (Photos) Arrived at North Rim of the Grand Canyon. (N 36.20974, W 112.06016)
Day 8 - (Sunday, June 15, 2008) Spent entire day at Grand Canyon.
Attended Ranger led programs on Indian History and on the Geology
of the Canyon, very interesting. Had lunch at the dining room in
the lodge. A great experience. Hiked some of the less
challenging rim trails. Had campfire with s'mores. (Photos) (Download the Grand Canyon North Rim Visitors Guide (pdf))
Day 9 - (Monday, June 16, 2008) Left the Grand Canyon and drove through Zion National Park.
Stopped to let the kids climb on the rocks. Had to get a
special permit for the camper. One of the tunnels is so narrow
that they stop oncoming traffic and we drive right down the center
line. Stopped at the visitor's center, which is a building
constructed to be
very energy efficient. It takes advantage of nature for
heating and cooling. (Photos) Arrived in Cedar City, UT and stayed at the
KOA. (N 37.69598, W 113.06413)
Day 10 - (Tuesday, June 17, 2008) Drove across the state of Nevada,
including a stretch on the "Extraterrestrial Highway" through Rachel,
famous for its "Little Ale Inn". (Photos) Had lunch in the very aptly
named Caliente, NV. Crossed into California at stayed at Mono
Vista RV Park in Lee Vining, CA. It had a good view of Mono Lake.
At check in we were issued one token per person, good for 5
minutes of hot water in the shower, cold water was free. ( N
37.95937, W 11.12293) (Photos)
Day 11 - (Wednesday, June 18, 2008) A light snowfall last winter made Tioga Pass through Yosemite National Park open early this year. We drove to the top of the pass and let the
kids play in the snow. Heather easily enjoyed it as much as the
kids. Made several stops for photos of mountain vistas, creeks,
and waterfalls. (Photos) Continued on to my brother's home in Sonoma, CA.
They have a guest apartment so we were able to spread out a
little from the confines of the camper. I did manage to clip a
tree in the driveway and bend the awning on the camper. We
managed to straighten a little and tie it into place. (N
38.31028, W 122.54903) (Photos)
Day 12 - (Thursday, June 19, 2008) Sandy and Rainy stayed on the ranch to spend a day with the
animals. Heather, Koti, and I drove into San Francisco for a
glorious tourist day. The Alcatraz tour was sold out, so we took
a boat tour of the bay, with a pass under the Golden Gate Bridge (Photos) and a circle around Alcatraz. (Photos) Had lunch on famous Pier 39 and watched the sea lions. (Photos) We then visited the Aquarium of the Bay,
where we walk in underwater plastic tunnels surrounded by fish.
(Photos) Then onto a bus to Chinatown. After some walking and
shopping, we had a great dinner in a Vietnamese restaurant. We
hopped the same bus line as the one we had used to get there (the
busses were free today), expecting to take the short loop back to the
bayshore. However, this bus took us way down the bay, a long way
from our destination. Finally it stopped (we were the only
passengers on board) and the driver announced the end of the line.
We had to get off and catch another bus back. It took us
through downtown and we had a great tour of the city. We finally
got back home about midnight.
Day 13 - (Friday, June 20, 2008) Planned as a "down day" to get caught up, we stayed at the
ranch. The day flew by as we caught up on family, played with the
animals, and unloaded and reviewed the massive number of photos we'd
taken so far. Rainy and Koti also got to ride on Kazzy the Camel.
Photos from Lyon Ranch & San Francisco